Saturday, 29 May 2010

Laws

Laws. Lex dura sed Lex.

He offended. He's now done entirely the proper thing and resigned. However, if this extremely able and talented man doesn't return to government at some point, the nation will be the loser. A quick, clean resignation means a shorter spell in the sin bin.

I generally agree with your opinions but not this time.If a benefit claimant had done this (pretending not to cohabit to gain benefit) they would probably have found themselves in court, and maybe prison, over a fraction of the money this man took.It's sad that someone so able should be lost but A - I think he deserves to go to court for fraud and B - anyone so stupid to be caught doing this after the last year is not as clever as you think!

I'm also pleased that he has done the decent and honourable thing and tendered his resignation. Had he not done so, I'm sure Cameron would have been left with no choice but to sack him.

Compare and contrast with the behaviour of the previous government's ministers who brazened it out for as long as possible before being forced to resign. Two of whom had to resign twice, and many had neither the decency nor honour to resign at at all.

Sorry to be thick, but I still do not understand the difference between Jacqui Smith renting a room with public funds from her sister and him renting a room from public funds from a mate. The former was told it was ok and no need to repay anything, the latter had been told to repay and resign. Either way, he would still have had to rent a room somewhere from public funds to facilitate him staying in London. The world has gone mad.